SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Ashapura Minechem Ltd (India)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Ashapura Minechem Ltd is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ashapura Minechem Ltd
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Ashapura Minechem Ltd can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ashapura Minechem Ltd, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ashapura Minechem Ltd operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Ashapura Minechem Ltd can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Ashapura Minechem Ltd
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ashapura Minechem Ltd
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in India
4. Making a Construction - Raw Materials sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ashapura Minechem Ltd
Strengths of Ashapura Minechem Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ashapura Minechem Ltd are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ashapura Minechem Ltd has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Digital Transformation in Construction - Raw Materials industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ashapura Minechem Ltd digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ashapura Minechem Ltd has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High brand equity
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ashapura Minechem Ltd to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Ashapura Minechem Ltd comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Construction - Raw Materials industry
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ashapura Minechem Ltd to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ashapura Minechem Ltd to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd is one of the most innovative firm in Construction - Raw Materials sector.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ashapura Minechem Ltd has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Ashapura Minechem Ltd staying ahead in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ashapura Minechem Ltd in the Capital Goods sector have low bargaining power. Ashapura Minechem Ltd has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ashapura Minechem Ltd to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Ashapura Minechem Ltd is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Ashapura Minechem Ltd is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Ashapura Minechem Ltd emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Ashapura Minechem Ltd
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Ashapura Minechem Ltd does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd is one of the leading players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in India. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in India. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses of Ashapura Minechem Ltd | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ashapura Minechem Ltd are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– From the outside it seems that Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the Construction - Raw Materials industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department at Ashapura Minechem Ltd can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ashapura Minechem Ltd is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– From the 10K / annual statement of Ashapura Minechem Ltd, it seems that company is thinking out the frontier risks that can impact Construction - Raw Materials industry. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High dependence on Ashapura Minechem Ltd ‘s star products
– The top 2 products and services of Ashapura Minechem Ltd still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in Construction - Raw Materials industry has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Ashapura Minechem Ltd has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ashapura Minechem Ltd is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, but Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ashapura Minechem Ltd to focus more on services in the Construction - Raw Materials industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Ashapura Minechem Ltd, in the dynamic environment of Construction - Raw Materials industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ashapura Minechem Ltd has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Ashapura Minechem Ltd supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Ashapura Minechem Ltd is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ashapura Minechem Ltd vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ashapura Minechem Ltd is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Ashapura Minechem Ltd to provide better information regarding Construction - Raw Materials products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ashapura Minechem Ltd has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the Construction - Raw Materials industry using digital technology.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ashapura Minechem Ltd is one of the leading players in the Construction - Raw Materials industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Construction - Raw Materials industry in last five years.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee of Ashapura Minechem Ltd is just above the Construction - Raw Materials industry average. It needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Ashapura Minechem Ltd Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Ashapura Minechem Ltd are -
Loyalty marketing
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ashapura Minechem Ltd to increase its market reach. Ashapura Minechem Ltd will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Construction - Raw Materials industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ashapura Minechem Ltd can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Ashapura Minechem Ltd can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ashapura Minechem Ltd to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in Construction - Raw Materials sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled Ashapura Minechem Ltd to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ashapura Minechem Ltd to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ashapura Minechem Ltd is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ashapura Minechem Ltd can utilize new technology in the field of Construction - Raw Materials industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ashapura Minechem Ltd can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ashapura Minechem Ltd can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ashapura Minechem Ltd has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Construction - Raw Materials industry. This can help Ashapura Minechem Ltd to build a more holistic ecosystem for Ashapura Minechem Ltd products in the Construction - Raw Materials industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Ashapura Minechem Ltd can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Construction - Raw Materials sector. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ashapura Minechem Ltd can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Construction - Raw Materials industry.
Threats Ashapura Minechem Ltd External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Ashapura Minechem Ltd are -
Increasing wage structure of Ashapura Minechem Ltd
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Ashapura Minechem Ltd.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Ashapura Minechem Ltd business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the Construction - Raw Materials industry.
Environmental challenges
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Ashapura Minechem Ltd can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Construction - Raw Materials industry.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Ashapura Minechem Ltd may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Construction - Raw Materials sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ashapura Minechem Ltd demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in Construction - Raw Materials industry and other sectors.
Regulatory challenges
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Construction - Raw Materials industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ashapura Minechem Ltd has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Construction - Raw Materials industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Construction - Raw Materials sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Construction - Raw Materials industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Construction - Raw Materials industry will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ashapura Minechem Ltd can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ashapura Minechem Ltd Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of Ashapura Minechem Ltd is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of Ashapura Minechem Ltd is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Ashapura Minechem Ltd to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Ashapura Minechem Ltd needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.